The Los Angeles Dodgers are repeat World Series champions – – a feat that has only been accomplished twice before in the last 30 years. The seventh game of any World Series is “compelling”; this one went above and beyond that description; it was riveting. My long-suffering wife is not a baseball fan, but she sat down with me to watch at the beginning and was there to see the final out and was fully focused on the game, the score and the situation. She was not alone …
According to Hollywoodreporter/com, the TV audience for the game “peaked” between 11:30 and 11:45 PM EDT at 31.54 million viewers and “averaged” 25.98 million viewers for the entire telecast. That is the largest TV audience for any MLB game since Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. [No need to Google; in 2017, the Astros beat the Dodgers for the World Championship in seven games.] The last time there was a Game 7 on the air was in 2019 and last Friday’s audience was 10% bigger than that one.
The Dodgers’ repeat is certain to spark fan reaction and debate. The Dodgers’ payroll on opening day of the 2025 season was approximately $320M; three teams started the season with payrolls less than 25% of what the Dodgers were paying out. Moreover, half of the teams in MLB spent less than half of what the Dodgers spent on player payroll as of opening day. Frustrated fans around the league will use those figures to put a figurative asterisk on the Dodgers’ accomplishments. In one sense, those fans are right; the playing field is tilted in favor of the “big-spenders” and it has been ever since the formation of leagues of professional baseball teams.
The Dodgers played by the rules that exist, and those rules did not guarantee them success; the Dodgers earned their success. Consider that back on opening day, the NY Mets spent even more than the Dodgers did on player payroll. [Yes, the difference was a paltry $2M but recognize that the Mets spent $323M on player salaries and did not make the playoffs let alone the World Series.] The field is certainly tilted, but the outcome is not pre-ordained. I think Dodgers’ manager, Dave Roberts, summed it all up very well:
“We’re in a big market. We’re expected to win. Our fans expect us to win. I can’t speak to what revenue we’re bringing in, but our ownership puts it back into players, a big chunk of it. That’s the way it should be with all ownership groups.”
The alternative to Roberts’ assessment of the status quo is a salary cap/salary floor situation that would only be acceptable if it were enshrined in a new CBA – – and the current CBA will expire on December 1, 2026 – – soon after next year’s World Series champion is crowned. Personally, I think a cap-and-floor structure has worked very well for the NFL and the NBA and on that basis, I would prefer that MLB try for something similar in a new agreement. I doubt that will happen for two reasons:
- The players’ union is dead set against anything that smells like a salary cap. They have their reasons for such a position; I happen not to agree with them on that point.
- The “deep-pocketed owners” are not nearly as motivated to fight for such a concession as are the “small market guys”. I can envision the “owners’ solidarity” eroding quickly should a lockout dry up their tidy revenue streams.
The Dodgers won the World Series; no one anointed them as the champions outside the rules and norms of the game. Put aside the “economic inequality lamentations”; they are what they are, and they will be back again next season. And if next year’s World Series goes 7 games and produces a final game of similar drama and excitement, no one will care about the economics associated with the winners.
Moving on … The Bible says that when God shuts one door, He opens another. Well, as the MLB season closes out, the college basketball season opens. The first real games are tonight and if I have read the schedule properly, the first game will tip-off at 11:00 AM EST with Bradley visiting St. Bonaventure. There will be thousands of games among the 350+ teams that play men’s college basketball at the Division 1 level between now and when the NCAA crowns its champion in early April 2026. One season ends and the next one begins …
Finally, consider this from Will Rogers:
“About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………